Pros and cons of traveling by car (car). What are the pros and cons of traveling by train?

Overwhelming majority Russian tourists For the first time in their lives, they travel abroad by purchasing a tour. However, with the acquisition of experience of traveling abroad, sooner or later the majority is faced with the question - buy a tour or organize your trip yourself?

"On one's own!" - will be answered by those who have already seen a lot and been to a lot of places.

According to Interfax, the Russian market independent travel in 2013 grew by 8% compared to the previous year. What advantages does the opportunity to travel without travel agencies offer? Let’s look into the details.

Complete freedom to choose a point on Earth

I'm tired of Türkiye, I'm tired of Egypt. For example, I wanted to go to Christmas Island Indian Ocean. Will travel agencies help you realize this desire? No. Travel companies It is completely logical to offer the product that is most in demand on the market. In the case of a trip to Christmas Island, you will have to look for a very long time for a company that will organize the trip. And such a hand-assembled tour will be very, very expensive.

Authenticity

What new, real, national, traditional can you discover in popular hotels in Antalya, Hurghada or Goa? Will they be different from each other? The more popular the destination, the more traffic there is in “Potemkin villages” such as the settlement of long-necked women of the Karen tribe near Pattaya in Thailand. The women are real, but the village itself, everyday life and paraphernalia - all this was made specifically for a crowd of curious, but undiscriminating people.

Freedom to choose routes

Drive to tourist bus across Europe in 8 days. To catch a glimpse, from a window, or during a short stop, glance at the Eiffel Tower or walk around the Colosseum in a noisy crowd. Constantly waiting for people who are late, stopping at dubious stores and souvenir shops. You can avoid all this and make yourself truly interesting route. Exclusively from German castles, for example, or from French wine cellars, or from museums visual arts- depending on interests.

Saving

Law of tourism: the more popular the destination, the higher the prices for food, things, and souvenirs. For example, a pint of Guinness at Temple Bar, tourist center Dublin will cost 5.5 €, but if you move a couple of blocks to the side, the same thing will cost 4.5 €. Having purchased a tour, we always receive a set tourist places with the most tourist prices.

In addition, the tours themselves are often more expensive than independent travel. For example, a 9-day tour of Ireland for two will cost 2,500 € without expenses, and a self-organized tour will cost 2,000 € in full.

Communication with interesting people

Independent travel is a real contact with local residents and equally interesting travelers. In this case, there are no restrictions, a tourist group, a hotel and the same contingent in all nearby establishments.

Adventure Element

Even a carefully planned trip is an opportunity for discovery. You never know what really lies ahead, what will make the greatest impression, who you will meet along the way and how the route may be changed. In the shopping tour, everything is predetermined.

Self-development

Traveling on your own is a reason to explore another country and learn a lot of new and interesting things. Such trips broaden your horizons, improve your knowledge of languages, develop communication skills, and make inner world a person is richer, and he himself is wiser.

Free daily routine

An independent traveler himself determines what time he will have breakfast, how long he will look at this or that attraction, and when he will leave one city for the next.

Without crowds of tourists

You can always choose a place and time yourself when you can enjoy the landscape or architecture without a noisy crowd of compatriots, feel the local flavor and unique atmosphere without distortion.

Huge selection of accommodation

When choosing housing on your own, the opportunities open up disproportionately large compared to a purchased tour: you can live in a tent, camping, trailer, sports and tourist camp, surfer spot, hostel, room, apartment, bungalow, house, villa, guesthouse, hotel, motel, castle, chalet, penthouse - in a word, anywhere.

Results

	Purchasing a tour	Solo travel
Choosing a direction	Where everything goes, so does the buyer of the tour. The choice is limited.	The choice is limited only by planet Earth.
Authenticity	Tourist reservations.	A truly diverse, vibrant world.
Selection of routes and attractions	Crowded routes, fake restaurants, souvenirs, factory shops.	Only what is truly interesting.
Saving	Significant savings on the most popular routes (Türkiye, Egypt). Significant overpayment for less popular destinations.	Significant savings on “hand-built tours”.
	The social circle is often limited to relaxed compatriots. The risk of the “Tagiiil!” format (depending on direction).	More communication with local residents and an interesting international crowd.
Adventures	Minimized.	Adjustable by traveler.
Self-development	Less.	To a greater extent.
Schedule	There are limitations to one degree or another.	No restrictions.
Number of other tourists
Choosing housing		The choice is very wide; one housing can be replaced with another without any problems.

Photo: thinkstockphotos.com, flickr.com

Increasingly, vacationers prefer independent travel to tourist packages. What do you need to know when going on such a trip, and what difficulties can you encounter along the way? Let's take a closer look.

Advantages

The main advantage of independent travel is complete freedom. You choose your own route and visit only the places you have chosen. Your time is also not limited: you can rest until lunch, not go somewhere because you don’t feel well. And here sightseeing tours impose their own schedule entertainment program, which you will have to comply with regardless of the circumstances (laziness, desire to sleep, headache, etc.).

Other advantages of independent travel include:

Best service. Self-search for hotels, flights and more allows you to choose the best based on reviews, photos and offers.
Wide choice of accommodation. Trailers, hostels, apartments, tents and more are available for your choice.
An element of adventure. The absence of strict frameworks and guarantees of safety adds a special spice to travel.
An opportunity to get to know your holiday destination better. Excursions from travel agencies usually cover major attractions. However, the city truly opens up away from the “tourist reservations”.
Minimal presence of tourists nearby. This is especially critical for Russian-speaking vacationers, who often complain about unpleasant company and uncultured neighbors.
New experience. Opportunity to learn new language and get to know the indigenous people.

A dubious advantage is savings. In some cases it can reach up to 50%. To understand how this works, you need to understand what determines the price of the agency’s service package. Initially, this very “package”, which may include tickets, excursions, hotel, etc., is formed by the tour operator. After formation, he increases the percentage of the resulting value and sells this package travel agency. The agency also increases interest for itself, after which it sells the services to the consumer.

If you do not know how to search for information and select services with the optimal price-quality ratio, then the cost of your vacation may be even higher than that of a travel agency.

Flaws

The disadvantages of independent travel include:

A waste of time and effort. It takes much more time to prepare an independent trip, since you have to book tickets and a hotel room yourself, study maps and routes, and collect bits of information.
Lack of monetary stability. Using the services of a travel agency, you can be sure that you will not be left on the street in unfamiliar city and without money. When traveling alone, you have to take care of this personally.
Difficulties in orientation. Those traveling for the first time have to spend more time finding the road than those who are taken from the airport to the hotel by a tour operator bus.

Temporary disadvantages include the language barrier. Today there are electronic translators and dictionaries that allow you to communicate with the indigenous population, however, such communication can hardly be called comfortable.

Difficulties

The difficulties you may encounter depend entirely on the country you choose. There are several common dangers awaiting tourists:

Acclimatization. Applies to hot countries. Climate change is especially difficult for young children. It cannot be avoided, but it can be alleviated if you stock up on medications in advance and take out insurance in case of complications.
Violation of prohibitions. This applies to both laws and unspoken rules. Before sending, be sure to read about the current laws of the country and the rules of conduct among the indigenous population.
Limit of financial resources. It is advisable to take a little more money with you than planned. Anything can happen while traveling: from health problems to incidents with the police. It is better to take a certain amount with you for such cases.
No tickets. If a tourist package guarantees you a safe return home on the agreed day, then when traveling on your own it is better to take care of this in advance. For example, by booking a ticket.

How to organize?

Proper travel organization is the first step to have a good rest. Organizational activities include:

Design of a suitable bank card for convenient payment.
Decor insurance policy and international passports.
Registration of a visa and international car license (if necessary).
Comparison and selection of flight options and hotels.
Determining the date and purchasing a ticket.
Preparation of travel itinerary, excursion and entertainment programs.

Top 6 ideal places for your first trip

The first independent trip is the most exciting. To make it happen comfortably, it is better to plan it in a country with good conditions, for example, in:

Thailand. The most hospitable country for tourists, but with a very humid climate.
Spain. Here you can find entire Russian-speaking settlements, a lot of beautiful architecture, a comfortable climate, but little inexpensive housing.
Czech Republic. Many old and beautiful sights, quality beer, English-speaking population.
China, namely to Hong Kong. Low prices, stunning architecture with skyscrapers.
India, namely in Goa. Clean beaches, delicious food, average prices. But, in some areas, theft from tourists is common.

We know that traveling is very interesting; you can see the most beautiful corners of our planet and get acquainted with another culture. But besides this, traveling teaches us a lot; by traveling, we can gain skills that will be useful to us not only in everyday life, but also in our careers. Of course, I don't mean a two-week vacation on a sun lounger on tropical island. It's about about traveling around the world, cities and countries for a longer period of time.

1. Social and communication skills

While traveling, we constantly actively communicate with different people. Communication plays a huge role in a person’s social life and in his career. If you suddenly find yourself without cash, far from the nearest ATM, or lost in an unfamiliar city, you can always ask others for help, which means finding a way to explain the problem to them and resolve it.

2. Hardening from stress

While traveling, people often face different problems; traveling helps a person get out of their comfort zone and look at life from a different angle. If you find yourself in a difficult situation in an unfamiliar country, say you've lost your passport and don't know the local language, you won't have time to hysteria and cry, you'll need to calm down and think things through further actions. This is how travel teaches a person to deal with stress and overcome problems.

3. Self-organization and planning

Disorganization can backfire in the professional sphere of any person. You might even lose your job. Organized people who are used to planning their time in advance know how to protect themselves from many unpleasant situations. If you are traveling to big Adventure, you will have to plan a lot, you will need to think and make decisions, draw up a budget. Traveling teaches a person organization and planning - skills that are simply irreplaceable in everyday life.

4. Managing your time

I am simply amazed by the number of useful skills and abilities that you can gain while traveling. If you're going on the trip of a lifetime, you'll think about every minute of your adventure. Perhaps this is not how you imagine vacation and relaxation; on the contrary, you want to let go of the situation and not control anything. Then a beach lounger for two weeks is for you. If you want to learn a lot of new things and acquire valuable skills, then plan your time so that in one day you can visit as many places as your own energy resources allow. Traveling allows you to prioritize goals and plan your own time.

5. Interaction with other people

This does not apply to those traveling alone. But it’s more fun and safer to travel with a friend or a pleasant company, where interaction with them and teamwork will play a big role.

6. Ability to make decisions

Initially, planning a long trip is a very serious decision in itself. There are many route options, places you want to visit, how to get to this or that attraction or settlement, how long you will stay in a particular city, and so on. Everything needs to be thought out and decided in advance.

7. Self-perception and realization

It may sound trivial, but a person can really “find himself” by traveling. This is a cliché, but we must not forget that clichés are born from facts. While traveling, you have time to think about a lot of things and make important decisions regarding your own life, listen to yourself, and, finally, “find your way.” By traveling, a person gains self-understanding and self-awareness, and usually has a much better understanding of what he wants.

In addition to the above, traveling can teach you to quickly solve problems, develop creative thinking and visualization, adapt to different situations, and, of course, you can learn a foreign language. Have you ever traveled “seriously”? What has the journey taught you? Write in the comments!

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Reasons for traveling: we look at the pros and cons

Traveling is the most enjoyable way to develop, learn new things and get to know yourself while traveling, relieve stress, acquire new skills, meet new people and cultures... It seems that in the song of the Bremen Town Musicians it was not for nothing that they sang “There is nothing better in the world... ". We constantly tell you a lot of interesting things: we offer, we advise, we inspire you, we talk about convenient things, we show you, but we never talk about the disadvantages of tourism. Let's figure out what are the advantages of tourism and what are the disadvantages (if any).

The best reason to travel is the travel itself © instagram.com/expertvagabond/

Positive traits

Low cost

Perhaps the main advantage of trains is the low cost of tickets. This is especially true for young travelers and students. In most cases, tickets for this type of transport are much cheaper than plane tickets (provided that we're talking about about relatively short distances). In addition, in many countries, including the EU, railway companies offer promotions and discounts. You shouldn't expect anything like this from airlines. For example, children under two years of age can ride the train absolutely free, while boys under 15 pay only half the ticket price. What can you say now?

Calm and minimal action

Unlike airports, railway transport will save your nerves and energy. There is no need to arrive at the station several hours in advance to stand in line, go through the registration procedure and security check. You just need to arrive with a ticket or buy one just before departure, and then board the train. It's unlikely that anything could be simpler.

Fixed cost

Regardless of the day of the week, be it a holiday or a weekday, the price of train tickets is always the same and unchanged. The exception is Ukraine, where the price depends on how busy the day is, which often plays into the hands of experienced travelers. You don’t need to rearrange your schedule, suddenly change plans and fly headlong in the middle of the week, because... the plane ticket is cheaper that day. There is no need to search for low-cost airlines or other hot offers. If you decide to go, you can do this on the same day.

Flexible schedule

Due to the modern pace of life, no one is immune from a sudden change of plans. Anything can happen. For example, it costs nothing to be late for a plane because of the same traffic jams. In this case, you will have to wait for the next flight, which may depart tomorrow, or even in a few days. In the case of railway transport, you should immediately forget about this problem. Thus, in popular destinations, flights operate approximately every 2 hours. Otherwise, you can get to your destination with transfers.

Indescribable atmosphere

Many tourists can easily afford to travel by plane, but they prefer trains because of their unique and unique charm, romance, and enchantment. Once you get into the carriage, you seem to be transported to another era, to a whole world with its own atmosphere. A guide who offers and serves tea, the rhythmic sound of wheels, comfort, conversations by the window, behind which the landscapes flash by. It is impossible to convey in words, all this must be felt.

Comfort

Despite the high cost of tickets, planes do not provide the required level of comfort. How can you sleep while sitting in one position for many hours in a row? Upon arrival, you are guaranteed to wake up tired, crushed and without a hint of a good mood. Trains, and especially compartments or sleeping cars, are a different matter. Each passenger can expect a clean bed, a large comfortable shelf, and the absence of turbulence and other negative irritants.

Accurate arrival according to schedule

Have you ever had a train get cancelled? Were they delayed because of thunderclouds? Hardly. Unlike air travel, you can almost always be sure when you will reach your destination. Train travel abroad or domestically will never be disrupted.

Location

Another important advantage of trains is the proximity of railway stations to the city center. The same cannot be said about airports. Arrogant taxi drivers who demand huge amounts of money are excluded here. You can easily get to the railway station by metro or any other public transport.

No baggage restrictions

At airports you have to pay for every extra kilogram of weight. Moreover, the prices hit the wallet hard. And if you also have a second suitcase, you will immediately pay extra. Many things are not allowed at all, or even prohibited, from being carried. Even nail files and soda cans are prohibited. You can bring at least two suitcases of 25 kilograms each on the train, no one will weigh them, much less be interested in the contents.

High degree of security

Undoubtedly, an airplane is a safe transport. However, many people feel much more confident moving on rails on the ground than in the air.

No search

Each passenger is allowed into the carriage after looking only at their ticket, passport or student ID. While airport staff carefully search people and check the contents of their luggage.

You can also save time and effort on the registration procedure. She simply isn't here.

Many beautiful places

You can see a lot more when traveling by rail beautiful places than flying on an airplane. It is the train that allows you to get acquainted with the peculiarities of the country, its nature and landscapes. Big lakes, villages and hamlets, dense groves of trees, rivers, mountains, provincial towns, flocks of birds, endless fields and much more.

Possibility to take your own food and even alcohol on the road

Formally, drinking alcoholic beverages on the train is prohibited. However, no one bothers you to take a bottle of good wine into your compartment and spend time with your other half romantic dinner. You can also treat talkative fellow travelers by making several acquaintances along the way.

Save time and money at night

Many travelers explore the city during the day, get acquainted with its sights, and visit various galleries, museums and art exhibitions. After which, they depart on overnight flights to a new location. This is an opportunity to “kill two birds with one stone” - save on rent and save valuable time. After a good sleep, you can get acquainted with new cities again.

Disadvantages of train travel

Alas, railway transport is not without its negative qualities. The following disadvantages should be noted:

Condition of carriages and quality of service. Not all carriages are clean and tidy (this is especially true for trains in the CIS and some Asian countries). Guides are not always polite and courteous; they may not perform their direct duties, as well as fix breakdowns that interfere with a comfortable trip;
The reserved seat is usually noisy, crowded, and there is a variety of smells here. Summer in the carriage is extremely hot; Duration of the trip. It will take several days to get to many cities, while an airplane covers a similar route in a few hours;
Ticket prices. In some cases, ticket prices may be more expensive than other modes of transport (including planes). You can save a lot by purchasing tickets several months in advance;
Possible strikes. In the European Union, employees railway strike every year. Because of this, management is forced to cancel many flights and also change train schedules. However, strikes are usually announced in advance to alert passengers.

conclusions

Every tourist should try rail transport for travel. There will be a lot of impressions from such a trip. The train is a unique atmosphere and an opportunity to make many new acquaintances. Travel with pleasure and gain invaluable experience!

Choice vehicle for travel depends on many factors. Try to consider all the pros and cons. Many tourists combine trains with flights.